Figuring Out A New Set Up

[bturner]

Recently the station I manage upgraded to a new tower site. Aside from finding the expertise I need to finish everything out, I'm not sure what I need. I have the engineering expertise of a head of lettuce. Let me explain.

We need a functioning studio at our office and get it to the tower site. Currently we are airing from the tower site, so I need a way to override this as our day to day will be from the tower site. Our EAS is located there.

My owner specifically said "Since you're in the field most of the time, I need you to monitor the transmitter (that's easy and done...love that Nautel!) and I want you to be able to control the station where you are at that moment. I want you to literally have a radio station in a briefcase." Naturally that was followed by the "as economically as we can". His thinking is if I'm in the field, I could literally take over the station, going live from where I am right then if I need to such as to announce tornado warnings, flash flood warnings and such that need repeating over and above the EAS firing off.

I know my owner would like to look at economical options of getting the office studio to the transmitter site. I can understand this since the office studio won't get lots of use.

I figure I need some sort of program with a switcher at the transmitter site to execute the function and while I'm in the field, good cell coverage.

Another thing I'd like is for the transmitter to call my cell if anything changes. As you might suspect, when you're in a meeting it's a bit impolite to monitor your station audibly at the same time.

We are literally still in CP mode and have gone from staffed to a situation where our office is shared by the owner's other business and they do stay busy all day, so having them fool with the station too is not too attractive considering their workload. I have a dedicated employee there but this employee is also on the other business payroll (we share the person). Thus, I have the station number go to my cell and I have a studio at the transmitter site as well. As you may know, your office must have a manager and an operations person and a functioning studio.

Any suggestions you can offer would be very appreciated and should you know someone that can put it all together in the Houston area, please put them in touch. My owner isn't a deadbeat or slow pay...a really good guy I'm lucky to work for. Everybody I know is so bogged down with work it might be months before they can get to us or their health will no longer allow them to do the work. I want to get this done in a timely fashion. If the FCC pops in I want them to see we're by the book, if not a bit better than the book requires.

 

[a6intruderdriver]

Stick the EAS right in front of the audio chain, with an autoswitch to override incoming program content. Grab a small console like an AEQ, laptop with your automation software and a serial/USB driven audio switcher for external feeds. The FCC will eat your lunch faster for bad paperwork than they will for having a ratty studio.

Clyde Clifford used to do Beaker Street on KAAY (The 50KW blowtorch out of Little Rock) right next to the transmitter...the noise in the transmitter plant was so loud he'd run Mancini's "Charade" soundtrack behind his vocals to dampen the transmitter noise. Of course, that's when "radio was radio" and not a bunch of voice-tracked claptrap (of "twaddle" as my friend Liam Anderson in London would say).

 

[okcradioguy!]

We need a functioning studio at our office and get it to the tower site. Currently we are airing from the tower site, so I need a way to override this as our day to day will be from the tower site. Our EAS is located there.

Having the actual EAS box at the transmitter is OK. Just make sure you can get into it from the studio to control it, and do your logs, etc. BE SURE TO SET YOUR OWN PASSWORD ON THE UNIT to reduce your chance of being hacked.

My owner specifically said "Since you're in the field most of the time, I need you to monitor the transmitter (that's easy and done...love that Nautel!) and I want you to be able to control the station where you are at that moment. I want you to literally have a radio station in a briefcase." Naturally that was followed by the "as economically as we can". His thinking is if I'm in the field, I could literally take over the station, going live from where I am right then if I need to such as to announce tornado warnings, flash flood warnings and such that need repeating over and above the EAS firing off.

Set your EAS box to auto-repeat tornado warnings, evacuations, and stuff like that. Sage can help you if you need help getting that straight. I would restrict your auto-repeats to just your local primary service area where the majority of the listeners are. Try not to wear the listeners out with fringe area warnings, or flash flood alerts, thunderstorms, etc....

You might want to consider looking into a Tieline Bridge-IT unit and their Enterprise app for either iphone or Android. Get the 10 pack, and you and others from the station could remotely connect into the Tieline unit, taking over programming, and give warnings, then switch back to normal programming. The Tieline Bridge-IT has the ability to loop audio through it and replace audio with what is coming from the app, then switch back. I would get a small remote control to be able to reset the unit in the event it gets goofy and glitches. Also, put it and the EAS box behind a firewall and only open the ports you need for both. You need a static IP at the transmitter to really do all of this right. You would send port 80 to the EAS box, and ports 9000, 9002 to the Tieline unit. Don't expose/forward the SIP ports to the outside world. Hackers do like to play with them. Hackers won't bother with the proprietary Tieline ports. Been there.. see it happen... With the Tieline setup, you also now have a very nice tool to do remotes ($$$$) from your phone.

I know my owner would like to look at economical options of getting the office studio to the transmitter site. I can understand this since the office studio won't get lots of use.

Get another Tieline Bridge-IT and put it at the studio, with a power strip on it so you can easily take control of the station (for FCC purposes too) from your "main studio". Set the Bridge-IT at the "studio" at the office to automatically reconnect (in settings in the Tieline).

I figure I need some sort of program with a switcher at the transmitter site to execute the function and while I'm in the field, good cell coverage.

Are you using an automation system at the tower? If you are, you might be able to control a Broadcast Tools switcher. Get with your automation provider to get the right model they like to use with their stuff.

Another thing I'd like is for the transmitter to call my cell if anything changes. As you might suspect, when you're in a meeting it's a bit impolite to monitor your station audibly at the same time.

Buy a Circuitwerks Site Sentury 4 for about 300 bucks. You'll also need a "dumb" email server of some sorts to set out the text messages, not using SSL. DynDNS provides a service for 3 dollars a month that can do this for you. If you want a remote control that calls a phone line, look into his Circuitwerks Sicon 8, which is about 1000 bucks. I really, really wished Nautel would come up with a modification to their internal GUI system that keeps alive the processor part of the transmitter for at least a few extra seconds so that it could cry for help when the power goes off, and the transmitter's output, of course, goes down. I find it short-sighted to have such a fancy little "remote control" inside a transmitter, yet not take it only a few steps further and not put a LARGE capacitor inside the transmitter to keep some voltage on the "remote control" so it will still yell for help. Think of how many guys like you, that don't really have a full-time engineer to wire up a remote control, that would benefit from such a small modification. It's sometimes just the small things that make all the difference....

We are literally still in CP mode and have gone from staffed to a situation where our office is shared by the owner's other business and they do stay busy all day, so having them fool with the station too is not too attractive considering their workload. I have a dedicated employee there but this employee is also on the other business payroll (we share the person). Thus, I have the station number go to my cell and I have a studio at the transmitter site as well. As you may know, your office must have a manager and an operations person and a functioning studio.

Do your boss a favor. Tell him/her that you MUST have two full-time employees at your radio station at all times, at the "main studio" on record with the FCC during business hours. You MUST make the public file available to anyone that wants to see it during normal business hours. So, functionally, what you need to do is get the owner to transfer a couple of his employees, on paper, from his other business payroll to the station. Their work won't change that much, unless the FCC shows up. You need to train them on where the public file is, and how to do basic stuff on the "studio" so they can demonstrate they can take control from there, program something from there, and send a weekly test on your EAS box, located at the tower. They also should be able to take transmitter readings and control the transmitter. If you have tower lights on a tower you own, that also needs to either be visually observed each night or you need the remote control to do that. You need to once a quarter log that you've checked the system (remote control) to ensure it is checking the tower lights each night. If you rent, that's the primary responsibility of the tower owner. Owning a station is not for the faint-hearted. There are ways to do it that are very economical, but you still have to have employees at a minimal and meet some small requirements or you are subject to massive fines.

Any suggestions you can offer would be very appreciated and should you know someone that can put it all together in the Houston area, please put them in touch. My owner isn't a deadbeat or slow pay...a really good guy I'm lucky to work for. Everybody I know is so bogged down with work it might be months before they can get to us or their health will no longer allow them to do the work. I want to get this done in a timely fashion. If the FCC pops in I want them to see we're by the book, if not a bit better than the book requires.

After you make these improvements, you might want get with the Texas Association of Broadcasters and have them do a mock FCC inspection of your operation. It will typically cost you under 500 to do this, and will expose some of the things that could typically get your a huge fine to your management/ owner so you can get them fixed. The FCC doesn't get a report from them of your shortcomings, but will get notification when you "pass", which will keep them away from ROUTINE STATION VISITS for three years. If you have probable cause for them to show up like a known violation or your transmitter went nuts and it's spewing up and down the dial for some reason, they still can show up. But, at least they won't "drop in" just because they are in the area and haven't been to your station yet. It's a very, very sound investment.

I know of a guy that is the Houston area that is quite competent. The trick is if he has time, etc. PM me if you need his info.

Good luck!

 

[okcradioguy!]

Let me also clarify something I just said, "Tell him/her that you MUST have two full-time employees at your radio station at all times, at the "main studio" on record with the FCC during business hours." Only one has to physically be there at one time. Just make sure you have two full-time folks on the payroll of the radio station, and that the "office" of the main studio is open for inspection of the public file, etc. during business hours by an employee of the radio station. That's where having a few more technically on your radio station payroll would be beneficial even if they normally work at the other business most all of the time.

 

[bturner]

Please forgive my delay in screaming THANK YOU for all the help. I once had a go-to guy who knew all of this but he moved out of the market. I'm printing these excellent ideas out so I can actually communicate what I need. I'm excited about seeing it done and fully legal. In my experience with the FCC, if you go at least a little above the minimum you show them you're serious about compliance and stand a better chance of compassion from the Field Agent is you have one thing wrong but everything else is a bit more than it has to be.

I have to relate a story: at one station the FCC walks in and asks us to do an EAS test. We immediately do it, in the middle of the song, likely surprising our listeners, but it seemed to shock the FCC guy more as he rather sheepishly said "You could have waited until your next break". I responded by saying I thought the EAS was for emergencies and in my book getting on the air with it as fast as possible was the idea. We pretend each test is the real thing, especially when you show up. He got pretty relaxed at that point. He liked the fact we took the rules seriously.

 

[Kmagrill]

Let me also clarify something I just said, "Tell him/her that you MUST have two full-time employees at your radio station at all times, at the "main studio" on record with the FCC during business hours." Only one has to physically be there at one time. Just make sure you have two full-time folks on the payroll of the radio station, and that the "office" of the main studio is open for inspection of the public file, etc. during business hours by an employee of the radio station. That's where having a few more technically on your radio station payroll would be beneficial even if they normally work at the other business most all of the time.

Everything OKC said is right on the money. One further observation: The two employees don't have to actually be paid by the radio station. They are permitted to be on the other company's payroll, however, they must be designated as employees of the station as well. At least one of the two must be designated as management. What that means is not clear, but I would assume that person has the authority to make on the spot decisions for the station, including tunring the transmitter off. The station is also required to designate a chief operator, in writing. This is kept, along with your license copies, in the public file. The chief operator is responsible for reviewing EAS and tower light logs every week and for general FCC compliance. The chief operator is sometimes, but not always, the chief engineer. If your engineer is contractor, it may be better to designate another person as the C.O.


Regarding program switching, I have a client that runs everything from the tower site, but they have a main studio, which they use almost daily. A Barix box gets the studio feed to the transmittter but was not reliable enough to be a full time link, hence the reason the automation lives at the transmitter site. We installed a Web enabled silence sensor at the transmitter site. The left channel measures audio from the main PC and switches to a backup source if the main PC crashes. We also wired up one of the silence sensor's status inputs so that if the main PC's power light goes out, the sensor operates the power button. The right channel is wired to the Barix output. Any time there is audio from the Barix, the sensor detects it and switches within 2 seconds. Of course, they can log into the sensor and do the switching manually, which we recommend at the end of the program since we programmed the switch back to local automation to be about 30 seconds in order to allow for pauses in the live programs. We installed a switch between the console output and the Barix input so that the studio can be used for production without putting it on the air accidently. The client loves it and uses it all the time.